Reflective Writing Club

Reflection on #CCCWRITE

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Reflective Writing Club , , ,

@One LogoJust yesterday, I had started on a 6 week journey of Reflective Writing Club.   The final prompt is reflection on our passage.

My goal for participating in the reflective writing club were: 

  1. To grow as a person and an educator
  2.  Connect with colleagues and learn from them
  3. Challenge myself and share my ideas with peers

What have I learned from it? Have I achieved my goals?

Six week may seem like a long time, but for me it passed before I can blink.  Yes, I did achieve each of this goals a little.  I visited many of my colleagues blogs and gain insights from their knowledge and am learning to integrate technology with sound education.  I am able to connect with wonderful Sheri Edwards and always graceful Laura Gibbs to name a few.  I realized that I have a lot of ideas and yet struggle with deadlines.  

Over the six weeks, I found out that I am spending way too long time forming and publishing my posts.  At times, I looked at the prompt and over thought my responses.  to meet the deadlines, I need to have better plan and time management.  I am a new blogger. Experience, being comfortable in my skin, learning about new techniques  and applying them to my posts will help me.  Baby Steps is the name of the game here.  I also need to know when to tweak the plan and get similar reason.  e.g., while writing Does My Mother Knows My Despair? I was trying to add a picture with text. I spend almost  two hours on learning about it.  I have still not got hold of it.  Rather than spending any more time on it, I decided to modify my plan and added the poem as document in the post.  In nutshell, I need to 

Allocate time to write a post, stop overthinking, stick to the plan, write the post, publish the post before the deadline

Sometimes, reading the post from my peers was like looking in the mirror of my thoughts; they had written exactly what I was writing.  Then I wrassle with Do I scrap my post?  Do I continue?  At other times, my colleagues had a different way to look at the same prompt.  Who knew a prompt for unplugging can be responded to as un-driving but Laura Gibbs did just that and in the process taught us a thing or two.  I learned that

There are multiple ways to answer a prompt. Be bold. Be reflective. Be free to look at new angles. Share with abundance

Overall, I enjoyed the experience.  I am looking forward to other professional development from @One. 

Are you participating in Reflective Writing Club?  Another challenge?  What are your thoughts on it? 

 

#CCCWrite

Beautiful Mistakes

Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba Connected Learning MOOC, Reflective Writing Club , , , ,

 

Do not be ashamed to admit mistakes. Let us learn from them & refrain from repeating them, Beautiful mistakes helps us grow as a person. Reflect on them but don't spend life & dwell on them.

 

A Beautiful Mistake.

We often do not hear mistake and beautiful in the same sentence.  Michelle Pancansky-Brock, thank you for the making me dig deeepperr and make me go on memory lane to talk about a beautiful mistake in professional setting that was painful at the time that resulted in my growth and development.

Is being a student profession?  Yes & no.  Being a student gives us foundation from which we build our professional lives on.  The mistake I am talking about was from my early days when I was young, inexperienced girl who had a lot to learn from life.  Though it was a learning experience, I do not know this mistake will be considered  beautiful or not.  By sharing my mistake, I am opening myself -warts and all.  The aim of this post is to engage in a healthy, respectful dialogue with my peers.

Long time back,  while I was a new immigrant, the college’s International Student Association was a bridge to students from different cultures and countries.  Encouraged by the enthusiastic and caring adviser, we will meet, mingle, learn about one another’s culture, share our experiences and try to navigate the new country.  For many of us, this student organization gave us sense of community where we belong rather than being adrift in our new environment.  

Standing United

One day, Elsa (not real name) told me, she liked a dress so much but it was out of her budget; being a jew-sharp and frugal- she was going to use her resources smartly.  So she went to Goodwill and bought something else equally good at a fraction of the price of that beautiful dress.  I asked her why she is calling herself a little jew while she was not one?  She explained that “being a jew” means that one is hard working, has a better moneysense and it is a complement.

Couple of days later, I was talking to another classmate, Chaya (not real name) about our families.  I said that my sister is a little jew, she saves all her money.  Though I was complimenting my sister, it was not so.  Chaya took offense at my word choice, “Jew”.  She was very upset & I can’t understand why.  Didn’t my other friend used same word for herself a week earlier?  Why she can describe herself as a sharp & frugal jew even though she is not a jew but I can’t use the same word to describe my sharp, moneywise sister?

Chaya was hopping mad at me & I can’t understand what had I done.  With blazing eyes and loud voice, she told me that “Being a Jew” is a stereotype and an reason for jews being discriminated through the years. To her, I was wrong and needed to make amends by apologizing as well as understanding why the phrase was derogatory.  My being ignorant of the sad history was not enough excuse & though highly agitated, she decided to educate me on history of prejudice against Jewish people.  That day, I lost a potential friend while learning a good lesson about cultural awareness and history.

 

Being ignorant of cultural nuances is not an excuse. -Purviben K. Trivedi-Ziemba

 

I am older and wiser now.  I look at individuals and do not lump any race with an attribute.  My interaction with Chaya was painful and humiliating.  It also taught me about being culturally aware and a better person.  I bring this knowledge to my everyday interactions in home, school and community. 

 

 

I am writing this post as a response to  Reflective Writing Club Week 4 prompt.

#CCCWrite

#CLMOOC

 

Additional Reading: 

 Jews and money: The stereotype, the history, the reality

The Importance of Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness